Author: Scheibling, R.E.

Source: Bulletin of Marine Science, Volume 32, Number 2, April 1982 , pp. 504-510(7)

Publisher: University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

Abstract:

In situ feeding observations among eight populations in various grassbed and sand-bottom habitats in the Grenadines and off St. Croix. U.S. Virgin Islands indicate that Oreaster reticulatus is primarily an omnivorous, microphagous substratum grazer. It extrudes its extensive cardiac stomach upon seagrass, sand, and/or algal substrates and ingests associated micro-organisms and particulate detritus. O. reticulatus also functions as an opportunistic predator and scavenger of any available slow-moving, sessile or moribund macrofauna and is occasionally cannibalistic. The feeding habits of O. reticulatus may be exemplary of tropical, shallow-water asteroids in general.

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Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 1982-04-01

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